Are You & Your Partner Ready For Baby? Here’s Your Pre-Conception Checklist

When you and your partner decide to start a family or grow your existing one, you start feeling all sorts of ways. Mostly giddy and excited, but also a little scared and unsure of what to really expect. Those feelings are totally normal! And it's a good time to get used to feeling lots of emotions at once (a teaser of pregnancy hormones to come...). If you’re feeling like you need a little more control over your TTC journey, then here are 5 things you can put on your pre-conception checklist…

1. Talk to your partner 

Whether you’ve started trying to conceive, you’re thinking about conceiving, or you're already pregnant, now can be a good time to talk to your partner about any and all aspects of your life. You might already spend time talking about how exciting it will be when you fall pregnant and see that positive pregnancy test, how you’ll decorate the nursery, how you’ll tell your friends and family, and it’s amazing to get on the same page about those things. But this is also a great time to talk about those more-serious-less-fun topics. Here are a few things you might want to talk about before you conceive:

• Your finances

  It's important to discuss your financial situation as it relates to raising a child. Financial strain is one of the leading causes of relationships ending, and communication is absolutely key in this department. Take a look at how your monthly budget will change, decide if and when you'll start saving for baby’s future, how comfortable you are with finances right now, and how possible time off work will affect this.

• Your parenting styles

  Start thinking about how you see co-parenting working, how responsibilities will be split up, what values you want to raise your children with, and what reward and discipline might look like. These things will likely change as you parent and you get to know your child too — but start discussing your expectations and keep conversations honest and open as you figure it out.

  You may even consider taking a parenting class together! Studies have shown that couples who take parenting classes before baby becomes a reality feel more connected, better able to support one another, and even have more positive birth outcomes.

• Child-care

  If you’re both planning on working (or if you’re not - you’ll still need a break too!) what are you planning on doing about child care? Do you have family close by who’ll look after baby? Daycare? And again, this comes into your conversations about finances!

• Your personal goals

  If you've decided that you're ready to have a baby, that is probably a shared goal you and your partner have. But what about your goals as an individual? Those don't go away just because you decide to grow your family. It’s a great time to clearly outline your personal and professional goals and share them with each other. Outline a plan to support each other in reaching those goals while you become parents together.  

Here are 9 Things To Discuss With Your Partner Before You Conceive! Sit down and read this list together over dinner.

2. Take a look at your lifestyle & diet

When you start trying to conceive, it’s important to take a look at lifestyle factors that can affect your fertility — and your partner’s if that’s a factor for your TTC journey! Your health right now can have lasting impacts on baby's health development in the womb and in later life, so take a close look at your habits and identify what areas you can optimize your health. Here’s what you can do to get started:

• Consider your alcohol intake

  In general, it’s recommended for both partners to reduce alcohol consumption when TTC. And though it’s not talked about enough, having guys reduce alcohol intake is just as important for conception and baby’s health as well. A study published in The BMJ suggests that even 5 drinks a week can reduce sperm quality, potentially reducing your success of conceiving as a couple. What’s more, studies have shown that paternal alcohol consumption in the months leading up to and during pregnancy is associated with lower birth weights and reduced brain size. Now, this doesn’t mean you both have to cut alcohol altogether, but the research is definitely pointing towards minimizing your intake wherever possible.

• Consider your sugar intake

  You don’t have to totally cut sugar out of your diet, but even consciously taking steps to reduce the amount of refined sugars in your diet is one of the best things you can do in your preconception diet. This includes anything labeled “added sugars” or white and brown sugars used in baking. Simple things like opting for more natural options such as honey, agave syrup, or applesauce can make a difference. Your body, skin, moods (and teeth!) will thank you for it.

• Talk to your doctor about any other lifestyle factors than might impact your health…

3. Get a pre-conception health check 

Checking in with your own lifestyle and diet is a great place to start but it can also be a good time to schedule a full physical or wellness visit with your GP or OB/GYN if you haven’t had one recently. You can think of it as a preconception check up, and if you communicate that to your healthcare professional, they can talk through some things you may want to consider:

• Discuss your and your family’s health history: would they recommend any health screenings or genetic testing?

• Discuss your lifestyle behaviors and environment and how they may impact your TTC journey

• Talk over any medications, OTC drugs, or vitamins you may be on and how those things may affect your chances of conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy

• Discuss whether supplementation of any vitamins or minerals is right for you at this stage

• Check if your vaccinations and any other health check-ups are up to date

Your partner’s health right now has a huge impact on conception success, so an update on their health and fertility is an equally good idea. At a male preconception checkup, men can expect to chat with the doc about:

• Their weight

• Any current medications and/or supplements they’re taking and how it might affect their fertility

• Their lifestyle habits and environmental factors that may affect your chances of getting pregnant together, as well the health of your future baby.

• Their personal and family health history to identify any potential genetic disorders and screening/tests that doc may recommend

• Their vaccination status to reduce the risk of passing along illnesses to you or baby, once pregnant

4. Familiarize yourself with prenatal vitamins 

As we mentioned above, you should talk to your doctor before you start taking any prenatal supplements, but it can be a good idea to familiarize yourself with prenatal vitamins and why they can be important before you speak to your doctor, so you’re able to ask all your questions!

Let’s start by saying that you should be aiming to eat a balanced diet filled with all the essential vitamins and minerals, but if you're a vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions, you might find it harder to get all your nutrients from food alone - and that's where supplements help out!

Most prenatal vitamins contain similar nutrients but can have varying levels from each brand, so it's important to check those doses and ensure you're taking the right amount, and we always recommend talking to your doctor to have them recommend a prenatal that might be best for you. Although supplements won't supply you with all the nutrients you need, they're meant to be 'supplemental' in supporting a balanced diet (where you should be getting most of your nutrients from). Using supplements like prenatal vitamins at least 3 months before conception can help ensure your body has all the nutrients it needs for a healthy conception and pregnancy. An 8-year study showed women who took iron supplements had a lower risk of ovulatory infertility. If your body doesn't have all the nutrients it needs, certain functions might become impaired, and lead to a longer time conceiving.

5. Start tracking your cycles - the right way! 

Let’s talk about why you might want to start tracking your menstrual cycle if you’re not already... Tracking your cycle can help you determine when you’re most likely to ovulate, which is when you’re most likely to get pregnant. In fact, you can only conceive around the time you release an egg! This doesn’t mean that conception only happens on your ovulation day because sperm can survive for a while before inseminating a released egg, so there’s usually a “fertile window” of 3-5 days when conception is most likely.

For most women, ovulation happens about 14 days before the start of your next cycle. The more periods you track, the more accurate predictions you can make because it’s easier to understand your average cycle lengths. An important thing to remember is that your predicted ovulation day is still a prediction. There can be some slight variation, especially if your cycles aren’t regular, but the fertile window should give you a good idea of when you’re most likely to ovulate and therefore most likely to conceive. It’s important to know that you can and may conceive outside of the predicted fertile window we give you, but the goal is to help you better understand where you’re at in your cycle so you can be more empowered through your TTC journey.

We recommend using the Baby2body cycle tracker for this — put in your period dates and we’ll do the rest!

What else do you think should be on our pre-conception checklist? Let us know in the comments!

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